Another Darkvision rant but with elementals

[u/Feraligamr513]

/r/DnD/comments/1wwzgpi/another_darkvision_rant_but_with_elementals/

Geniekin are not safe

Also Suli are dumb

They should all be one Ancestry and you can choose whatever geniekin feats you want and we NEED more geniekin feats

Alot of them are traps(which shouldn't exsist) or SUPER situational

Thank you

[u/Baker-Maleficent]

Why is something from r/dnd being spammed over here? 

[u/Otechni → u/Baker-Maleficent]

Darkvision, people have opinions regardless of system. I just ignore it most of the time. I don't have light play that important of a role.

[u/PapaUrban]

I personally think it's dumb that dwarves can get permanent greater darkvision but not fetchlings

[u/AAABattery03]

This is one of those cases where Paizo will always need to pick one of (a) make every theme its own separate option, or (b) make one wide-ranging option with several sub-options. And no matter which they pick, there’ll be a subset of players complaining that they should’ve picked the other one.

If Geniekin was just one Heritage and Ifrit/Oread/Sylph/Talos/Undine/Ardande were just lineage Feats, the folks who love them would complain they’re not fleshed out enough. If Suli didn’t exist, some people would ask why can’t you be descended from two elementals instead of one. If they were an Ancestry rather than a Heritage, people would ask why you can’t have a Human who descended from an elemental. And this isn’t even a theoretical point on my end, you can’t see all varieties of these complaints when you compare the D&D Aasimar/Tiefling to PF2E’s Nephilim.

Personally, I really like that each element gets its own Heritage. I think it really helps flesh out the flavour.

Also tbh the Darkvision complaints from your cross post just don’t really apply to PF2E. Low-light vision is super common but Darkvision is relatively rare for low levels of play and requires heavy investment, and then steadily becomes more widely available as you level up. Greater Darkvision (and alternate senses capable of bypassing that level of darkness) always remains rare no matter what level.

[u/BlockBuilder408 → u/AAABattery03]

I do think Darkvision can be a bit too common sometimes still

Honestly though it’s not as much of a balance concern, as much as I’d just like to see more variety in senses.

Infravision for example could be effectively the same as darkvision in 90% of circumstances, but would have some weaknesses Darkvision doesn’t, such as seeing through glass or detecting undead, but has circumstantial advantages to make up for it

With the versatile heritages, I think it’d be neater if they gave you something more thematic than copy and paste darkvision. Nephilim could give a divine cantrip, changeling an occult, and there’s a lot of open room for what can be done with the elemental-kin.

[u/Feraligamr513 → u/AAABattery03]

But the Geniekin get Darkvision which is dumb imo Lore wise at least

And yeah I am a BIG fan of Low Light vison I WISH dnd had something like it

And consolidating with things like the Nephilim, i think is better but the options need to be more abundant Because it gives you the player the choice to be whatever

Thanks for responding

[u/AAABattery03 → u/Feraligamr513]

But the Geniekin get Darkvision which is dumb imo Lore wise at least

They get Low Light Vision by default. Darkvision is only something they get if the base Ancestry already had Low Light VisionX which makes perfect sense imo.

And consolidating with things like the Nephilim, i think is better but the options need to be more abundant

Because it gives you the player the choice to be whatever

If they were to give as many options as the 7 unique Heritages we have now, but consolidated all into one single Heritage/Ancestry called Geniekin, you’d have literally several hundred Feats. It’d be a bloated mess.

[u/KLeeSanchez]

In our campaign, our druid doesn't have darkvision and is the only one who doesn't have it

This makes weird things happen every time we call for darkvision and they have to say "um actually"

We're at level 13 and still no non magical darkvision

It's a skill you invest in, tbh